A DIY breakout cable makes testing a network easier than trying to hit the right pins in a socket. You can do the same thing with a multimeter, but you need a way to access the network conductors. It’s possible, but not easy or reliable, to put the probes of a multimeter into a male NMEA 2000 connector. But, if you’re not careful you can pretty easily short the pins. It’s easier to work with a DIY breakout cable. That’s a fancy name for an NMEA 2000 cable with one end cut off and the conductors stripped back.
Start with the male end of the cable because it will connect to drop ports on tee-connectors as well as one of the backbone ports. It’s easy to do the same with the other end of the cable if you need to connect to male ports. Once the wires are stripped you have access to the signal and power wires of the network.
